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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Spread or turned out.
  2. adj. Clumsy or clumsily formed; awkward.
  3. n. Architecture An oblique angle or bevel given to the sides of an opening in a wall so that the opening is wider on one side of the wall than on the other.
  4. v. To spread (the limbs, for example) out or apart, especially clumsily.
  5. v. To make slanting or sloping; bevel.
  6. v. To dislocate (a bone). Used of an animal.
  7. v. To be spread out or apart.
  8. v. To slant or slope.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To display; unfold; spread out; hence, to cut up; carve: as, to splay a fish.
  2. To dislocate, as a horse's shoulder.
  3. In architecture, to slope; form with an oblique angle, as the jambs or sides of a window. See the noun.
  4. n. Spread; flare.
  5. n. In architecture, a sloped surface, or a surface which makes an oblique angle with another, as when the opening through a wall for a door or window widens from the position of the door or window proper toward the face of the wall. A large chamfer is called a splay.
  6. n. In fortification, the outward widening of an embrasure from the mouth toward the exterior of the parapet. See embrasure.
  7. Spread or spreading out; wide and flat; turned outward; hence, clumsy; awkward. See splay-foot, splay-mouth.
  8. Same as spay.
  9. In cooperage, to form (a barrel) by drawing it together at the ends.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To display; to spread.
  2. v. To dislocate, as a shoulder bone.
  3. v. To spay; to castrate.
  4. v. To turn on one side; to render oblique; to slope or slant, as the side of a door, window, etc.
  5. adj. Displayed; spread out; turned outward; hence, flat; ungainly; as, splay shoulders.
  6. n. A slope or bevel, especially of the sides of a door or window, by which the opening is made larger at one face of the wall than at the other, or larger at each of the faces than it is between them.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To display; to spread.
  2. v. To dislocate, as a shoulder bone.
  3. v. To spay; to castrate.
  4. v. To turn on one side; to render oblique; to slope or slant, as the side of a door, window, etc.
  5. adj. Displayed; spread out; turned outward; hence, flat; ungainly.
  6. adj. A slope or bevel, especially of the sides of a door or window, by which the opening is made larged at one face of the wall than at the other, or larger at each of the faces than it is between them.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. spread open or apart
  2. n. an outward bevel around a door or window that makes it seem larger
  3. v. turn outward
  4. adj. turned outward in an ungainly manner
  5. v. move out of position

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English splayen, to spread out, short for displayen; see display.

Examples

  • “They have relatively stiff steel nibs, which are harder to "splay", and well-designed grips.”

    Loosen Up Your Writing Grip To Banish Pain | Lifehacker Australia

  • “Magazine, _ classed _nominatim_ by an emphatic earnest man, not without a kind of splay-footed strength and sincerity, -- among the chief Heresiarchs of the -- world?”

    The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I

  • “Eddie Bernard, director of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, says one possibility is that the earthquake might not have been confined to the main fault, with additional seabed shaking coming from a 'splay' fault.”

    Scientific American

  • “Right before they hit, they kind of splay out into this starburst pattern.”

    chicagotribune.com -

  • “( "splay" them out, side to side, then shape them up and down after that).”

    Planet Haskell

  • “Had you the happiness to see yourself not long ago, in Fraser's Magazine, classed nominatim by an emphatic earnest man, not without a kind of splay-footed strength and sincerity, ” among the chief Heresiarchs of the ” world?”

    The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I

  • “Put it on in the background as you work or play, drink or splay, and watch as it works like confident fingers deep into your pleasure center.”

    The Huffington Post: Mark Morford: The Top 10 Most Awesome Albums of 2011

  • “In the midst were the deep impressions of the splay-hoofed game, and all about, everywhere, were the lighter footmarks of the wolves.”

    THE LAW OF LIFE

  • “There was a general discontent with the wide splay of the pliers.”

    Multitool Reviews: Field & Stream Tests Four Multitools from Gerber, Leatherman, SOG, and Buck Knives

  • “The great irony of Thanksgiving, to me, is that so many of the lovely holiday decorations celebrate the striking beauty of turkeys, standing tall and proud with their beautiful splay of tail feathers and colorful snood, alive and vibrant -- yet the reason for the turkey's prevalence in seasonal décor is not because the holiday pays tribute to the lives of these beautiful birds, but because of a tradition of killing and consuming them.”

    The Huffington Post: Maya Gottfried: How to Be a Vegan on Thanksgiving

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Lists

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Comments

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  • seanahan Also a type of tree, which I remember fondly. Oct 9, 2007

  • minerva I arose, the man hemming up for a speech, rising and beginning to set his splay feet... Oct 9, 2007

‘splay’ has been looked up 1371 times, loved by 2 people, added to 31 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.